FOR the first time in Mexico's six-year war on organised crime, the level of violence seems to have stabilised. Last year saw about 12,400 murders linked to gangs, only slightly more than the 11,600 recorded in the previous year. That is still double the number in 2008. But there are tentative hopes that the violence may have peaked: so far, 2012 has seen 22% fewer gangland "executions" than in the same period last year. The improving national picture masks sharply different regional trends. Last year Chihuahua, long the most violent state in Mexico, has seen a 46% drop in the number of mafia-linked killings. May of this year saw the fewest murders in Ciudad Juárez for 49 months, according to El Diario, a local newspaper. Violence has also dropped sharply in the neighbouring states of Baja California, Durango and Sinaloa.

But further east along the United States border, mafia hits have risen sharply in the state of Coahuila. On May 13th about 49 bodies were dumped on a roadside near Monterrey, in Nuevo León (the figure was imprecise because the victims had been dismembered). The ebb and flow of violence reflects the changing fortunes of Mexico's criminal gangs. The north-west has quietened down because the Sinaloa mob has beaten its rivals into near-submission in cities such as Juárez and Tijuana. Meanwhile in the north-east, Sinaloa and its allies in the Gulf “cartel” are bidding to take over turf controlled by the Zetas, with gruesome consequences.

MORE MEXICAN INTERACTIVES:Track the fate of Mexico's drug bosses with our "most-wanted" timeline gallery, and compare the murder rate and body count of each state against entire countries on our equivalents map.

Readers' comments

A a Mexican citizen, I would like to see the drug routes and the cartels that control them INSIDE the United States. Why is it that we never see the capos that control the most intricate and sophisticated retail business inside every American city? Why is it that nobody is doing "war" on this network? To Mexicans, we are fighting a war that the US has no interest in seeing it won. Many of us think now that the cartels should get free pass to the US in exchange for leaving the Mexican people and state alone. We would see then if the United States, as a people and as a government, really give a damn about stopping the drug traffic.

These graphs result very disturbing to me. What happens north Rio Bravo? How do NY junkies get their cocaine, their heroine...what are the traffic routes and who is who in drug trafficking in the UNITED STATES...Why so much information about Mexico but nobody knows anything about what´s going on in the US.

EXACTLY! If demand is suppressed, there is a price discount that makes trafficking less profitable. However, exactly as was practiced and learned in the US in the '20s and '30s, supply is being targeted. This adds a risk premium to price, that is a price support, which makes trafficking more profitable and attractive. Why would any government adopt a proven counter-productive approach? Either gov't members are stupid, or they are corrupt. You decide.

In response to yzepeda and Kursato: The US has plenty of info on drug trafficking and use; that wasn't the scope of Economist article. And, to quote G.W. Grayson, "It is naive to think you can win a drug war. The best you can do is manage it." That is what the U.S. is doing: the traffickers are getting rich, the users are getting happily high, and gov't is getting more and more power each day. So everyone is happy ... except for those who value liberty and/or disapprove of substance abuse.

I agree with Alex Haro, can you draw a map or traffic routes inside the US? how come nobody talks about this? is possible that no one knows how the drug moves into the U.S. consumers? who are the wholesalers, distributors, and retailers of a volume of product larger than any Coca Cola product? Or is the governement involved in this business? I can imagine is big cash all alone the demand side...what is the spread between the cost of the drug "FOB" in the border vs "consumer" price of 1 pound of cocaine? make the math.....the true business is in the demand side...

The US doesnt have many drug "king pins" such like mexico. The ones that distribute it are arms of the mexican drug cartels and then street level dealers distribute everything to people on that level for the most part.

The US doesnt have many drug "king pins" such like mexico. The ones that distribute it are arms of the mexican drug cartels and then street level dealers distribute everything to people on that level for the most part.

You will NEVER read anything from the U.S. Government about why American drug consumption (both legal/illegal) is the highest in the world as that is not part of the fear-mongering that the U.S. government and news media has instilled in the American public for several years to keep them busy worrying about things other than the continual deterioration of the American economy.

It is really horrifying to see that the drug lords are more powerful than the government of Mexico. It also indicates that politics is at the helm of large scale killing. In case these drug lords are Christians,
then they should take cue from Christ, who carried the cross to end the wave of violence from this planet. Even as a human being they should think hundred and one time before mass killing.

They aren't, this article is distorting the truth. These rates are barely above world averages. Mexico has 120,000,000 people. Per capita these aren't that bad and Mexico twice as safe as The Bahamas or Bermuda.